The Last of Us - A Retelling
by meggg4
Summary: This is a retelling of the story of 'The Last of Us' from different perspectives throughout. Hope you enjoy! Feedback and constructive criticism is very much welcomed and appriciated.


**Chapter 1**

I can hear noise in my dream, a familiar voice but still not quite belonging there. I am suddenly aware of my body. A familiar ache in my neck from where my head has been resting on the vertical sofa arm. Not an ideal, but a regular sleeping position. The artificial light from outside invades my dreams and I am regrettably forced to open my eyes. With a yawn to bring me back to the real world, I sit up.

"Hey," I say to my dad as he walks in, late from work again. It's not something that the other kids in schools' parents do. They get bedtime stories every night. I don't really care though, I like to think of myself as more grown-up than them, that makes me feel better about falling behind a bit in my grades. Dad doesn't know about that yet, that's why I'm hiding the parents evening letter in my bedside dresser. He never looks in there.

"Scoot," he says flopping down next to me on the worn out, old, black leather sofa. He looks tired. Not even the kind of tired you get from running around the track for an hour like we do in P.E. It's a different kind of tired, but I don't quite know how to describe it.

"Fun day at work, huh?"

"What are you still doing up? It's late." The words burn a little, I waited up to see him but now I feel like I did something wrong instead of something thoughtful. I am still excited though, today is a very special day.

"Oh crud, what time is it?" I realise as I jump up looking at the clock on the wall. I pray it's not too late for my surprise to work.

"It's way past your bedtime," dad replies, probably getting fed up of my bad behaviour recently.

"But it's still today," I respond. He doesn't sound too excited and normally everybody, especially at school, is always excited about their birthday. They talk about it for ages in the weeks leading up to their birthday and then actually on their birthday they throw big parties with rainbow balloons and confetti cakes and a giant bouncy castle that everybody jumps around on. I used to get invited to loads of parties, but not so much now. I wish I still got invited. Dad never really throws a party for me, but Uncle Tommy comes over and we eat cake from the nearest bakery and play games. I love it, even if I don't have a million friends over like some people do. I have the people around me that I love the most and that's all that matters.

"Honey please not right now, I do not have the energy for this," dad sighs as I reach under the sofa to retrieve his special birthday gift from it's hiding spot, he never lifts the sofa to vacuum and that's how I knew he would never find it. I'm worried that he won't like the present, his mood seemingly not a very pleasant one. Should I give him it tomorrow instead? No, today is his birthday and besides it might cheer him up, that's what my superpower is, making dad smile when even Uncle Tommy can't.

"Here," I nervously hand the box to him.

"What's this?" Dad asks, taking the white box from my hands.

"Your birthday," I reply, reminding him. It wouldn't surprise me if he had forgotten his own birthday with all the work he has been doing recently.

He looks hesitant as he opens the box to view what is inside. "You kept complaining about your broken watch, so I figured you know," I try to explain in a panic, worried he hates his present and I have ruined his birthday.

"You like it?" I nervously ask as he tries it on.

"Honey this is, it's nice but it ermm I think it's stuck, it's not" he awkwardly states holding the watch up to his ear listening for a tick. The panic in me fills up and it feels as if it's about to flood out of me in tears. I could have sworn it was working when I stashed it away under the sofa only a few days ago.

"What? No no no no," I grab his arm pulling it closer so I can see for myself. What a terrible daughter I am ruining my dad's birthday. I am so angry at myself I can only just hold back the tears now. I can see it ticking! It's still working just like I knew it was! A fake laugh comes out of my mouth but inside I am just thankful I didn't cry; Dad would have been teasing me about that for months to come.

"Where did you get the money for this?" Dad enquired as I moved to the other side of the sofa, a little bit hurt that he almost made me cry even though I know he didn't mean to.

"Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs," I tease back. Two can play at this game. What he will never know is that I made the money for it by selling sweets and crisps to the kids at school for the past few months. A surprisingly lucrative business. Uncle Tommy also gave me some money, if I promised I would never tell Dad he did that. I promised him I would never tell another living soul. Uncle Tommy didn't know I was going to use it to buy dad a present, he probably wouldn't have given me as much as he did if he knew the truth. Sometimes you have to hide the truth from people. They so say: what people don't know can't hurt them, like Dad not knowing about my slowly slipping grades.

"Oh good, you can start helping out with the mortgage then," Dad says, leaning forwards to turn on the TV.

"Pfft yeah, you wish," I joke back. I truly love my Dad more than anything in the world. He is the best friend to joke around with and he always listens to my stories about school. I just hope I make him proud.

All that is on TV is boring chat shows, Dad must be quite engrossed in them though since he has fallen silent. I remember this is why I never stay up late, but it was worth it to make my Dad smile again. A sight that is becoming increasingly rare these days. I try to stare at the TV screen until all the colours begin to blur together into a kaleidoscope. My eye lids become too heavy to lift and I slowly let them drop and take me away again.

I can feel Dad's strong arms wrapping around me and lifting me off the ground. I am awake now, but I don't want him to know. I feel safe cuddled up close to him like this and will savour every opportunity I can take to get a hug from him. My body gently thuds as I am carried upstairs and placed gently into my bed, my whole body thanking me for being on a soft mattress instead of the hard sofa. The feel of the cool blanket replaces Dad's arms around me as he tucks me in. I feel like a baby, but I love it. I truly wish every night could be like this one: perfect.

"Goodnight baby girl," Dad whispers, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. Now I can truly fall asleep, happy, safe and loved.


End file.
